Chpt. 19, Early Latin America

Question 1

Ferdinand of Aragon

Answer 1

along with Isabella of Castile, he was a monarch of the largest Christian kingdoms in Iberia; his marriage to Isabella created a united Spain; he was responsible for the reconquest of Granada, and the initiation of exploration in the New World

Question 2

Isabella of Castile

Answer 2

along with Ferdinand of Aragon, she was a monarch of largest Christian kingdoms in Iberia; her marriage to Ferdinand created a united Spain; she was responsible for the reconquest of Granada, and the initiation of exploration in the New World

Question 3

Caribbean

Answer 3

the first area of Spanish exploration and settlement; it served as an experimental region for the nature of the Spanish colonial experience; the encomienda system of colonial management initiated here

Question 4

Hispaniola

Answer 4

the first island in the Caribbean settled by the Spaniards; this settlement was founded by Columbus on his second voyage to the New World; it was a Spanish base of operations for further discoveries in the New World

Question 5

encomienda

Answer 5

grants of land made to Spanish conquerors and settlers in Mesoamerica and South America that gave the owner the right to exploit Native Americans on the land as laborers; they were the basis for the earliest forms of coerced labor in the Spanish colonies

Question 6

encomendero

Answer 6

the holder of a grant of Indians who were required to pay a tribute or provide labor on an encomienda; they were also responsible for the conversion of the encomienda into the church

Question 7

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Answer 7

a Dominican friar who supported the peaceful conversion of the Native American population of the Spanish colonies; he opposed forced labor and advocated Indian rights; his reports led to the eventual replacement of the encomienda system with repartamiento

Question 8

Hernán Cortés

Answer 8

led an expedition of 600 to the coast of Mexico in 1519; he is the conquistador responsible for the defeat of the Aztec Empire; he captured Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital

Question 9

Moctezuma 2

Answer 9

the last independent Aztec emperor; he was killed during Hernán Cortés’ conquest of Tenochtitlan

Question 10

Mexico City

Answer 10

the capital of New Spain; it was built on the ruins of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan

Question 11

New Spain

Answer 11

the Spanish colonial possessions in Mesoamerica; it included most of central Mexico, and was based on the imperial system of the Aztecs

Question 12

Francisco Vázques de Coronado

Answer 12

the leader of a Spanish expedition into the northern frontier region of New Spain; he entered what is now the United States in search of mythical cities of gold

Question 13

Pedro de Valdivia

Answer 13

a Spanish conquistador; he conquered the Araucanian Indians of Chile and established the city of Santiago in 1541

Question 14

mita

Answer 14

labor extracted for lands assigned to the state and the region that all communities were expected to contribute; this was an essential aspect of Inca imperial control that was adopted by the Europeans, who used it for their own purposes

Question 15

Potosí

Answer 15

a mine located in upper Peru (modern Bolivia); it was the largest of the New World silver mines; it produced 80% of all Peruvian silver

Question 16

Huancavelica

Answer 16

the location of the greatest deposit of mercury in South America; it aided in American silver production, and was linked with Potosí

Question 17

haciendas

Answer 17

rural estates in Spanish colonies in the New World; they produced agricultural products for consumers in America, and were the basis of wealth and power for the local aristocracy

Question 18

consulado and of seville

Answer 18

a merchant guild of Seville that enjoyed virtual monopoly rights over good shipped to America, and handled much of the silver received in return (this is the term for a merchant guild in general, and the important one to remember is that mentioned here, the one in Seville)

Question 19

galleons

Answer 19

large, heavily armed ships used to carry silver from New World colonies to Spain, they were the basis for the convoy system utilized by Spain for transportation of bullion

Question 20

Treaty of Tordesillas

Answer 20

signed in 1494 between Castile and Portugal, this treaty clarified spheres of influence and rights of possession in the New World; it reserved Brazil and all newly discovered lands east of Brazil to Portugal, and granted all lands west of Brazil to Spain

Question 21

letrados

Answer 21

these were university-trained lawyers from Spain in the New World; they formed the judicial core of the Spanish colonial bureaucracy, and exercised both legislative and administrative functions

Question 22

Recopilación

Answer 22

a body of laws established in 1681 for Spanish possessions in the New World; they were the basis of law in the Indies

Question 23

Council of the Indies

Answer 23

a body within the Castilian (of Castille) government that issued all laws and advised the king on all matters dealing with the Spanish colonies of the New World

Question 24

viceroyalties

Answer 24

two major divisions of Spanish colonies in the New World; one was based in Lima, and the other in Mexico City; they were direct representatives of the king, and ruled in his place (because the actual king was far way in Spain)

Question 25

viceroys

Answer 25

senior government officials in Spanish America; they ruled as direct representatives of the king over the principal administrative units, or viceroyalties; they were usually high ranking Spanish nobles with previous military governmental experience; the Portuguese also used some who resided in Goa for their possessions in the Indian Ocean, and then after the mid-17th century for their colony in Brazil

Question 26

audiencia

Answer 26

the royal court of appeals established in the Spanish colonies of the New World; there were 10 in each viceroyalty; they were part of the colonial administrative system, and were staffed by professional magistrates

Question 27

Sor Juana Inés

Answer 27

an author, poet, and musician of New Spain; she eventually gave up secular concerns to concentrate on spiritual matters

Question 28

Pedro Alvares Cabral

Answer 28

a Portuguese leader of an expedition to India; he was blown off course in 1500 and landed in Brazil

Question 29

capitancies

Answer 29

strips of land along the Brazilian coast granted to minor Portuguese nobles for development; they enjoyed limited success in developing the colony

Question 30

Paulistas

Answer 30

backwoodsmen from Sãu Paulo in Brazil; they penetrated the Brazilian interior in search of precious metals during the 17th century

Question 31

Minas Gerais

Answer 31

a region of Brazil located in the mountainous interior where gold strikes were discovered in 1695; it became the location for a gold rush

Question 32

Rio de Janeiro

Answer 32

a Brazilian port that was close to the mines of Minas Gerais, and which grew in importance with the Minas Gerais gold strikes; it became the colonial capital in 1763

Question 33

sociedad de castas

Answer 33

the American social system, which was based on racial origins; Europeans/whites were at the top, black slaves or Native Americans at the bottom, and mixed races in the middle; although it was race based, it was also based on other factors, such as wealth, and those in the lower racial castes who were wealthy could move up the system

Question 34

peninsulares

Answer 34

people living in the New World Spanish colonies who were born in Spain, they were at the very top of the caste system

Question 35

amigos del pais (friends of country)

Answer 35

clubs and associations dedicated to improvements and reform in Spanish colonies; they flourished during the 18th century; they were focused on promoting material improvements rather than political reform

Question 36

War of the Spanish Succession

Answer 36

this resulted from the Bourbon family’s succession to the Spanish throne in 1701; it was ended by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713; the result was the recognition of the Bourbons as rulers, the loss of some lands from the Spanish, and grants of certain commercial rights in Spanish colonies to the English and the French

Question 37

Charles the 3rd

Answer 37

a Spanish enlightened monarch; he ruled from 1759 to 1788; he instituted fiscal, administrative, and military reforms in Spain and its empire

Question 38

José de Gálvez

Answer 38

a Spanish minister of the West Indies and a chief architect of colonial reform; he moved to eliminate Creoles from the upper bureaucracy of the colonies, expelled the Jesuits, and created intendants for the local governments, among other things

Question 39

Marquis of Pombal

Answer 39

the prime minister of Portugal from 1755 to 1776; he acted to strengthen royal authority in Brazil, expelled the Jesuits, enacted fiscal reforms, and established monopoly companies to stimulate the global economy, among other things

Question 40

Comunero Revolt

Answer 40

one of the popular revolts against Spanish colonial rule in New Granada (Columbia) in 1781; it was suppressed as a result of divisions among the rebels

Question 41

Tupac Amaru

Answer 41

he was the mestizo leader of an Indian revolt in Peru; he was supported by many among the lower social classes, but the revolt eventually failed because the Creoles feared real social revolution

Question 42

Columbian Exchange

Answer 42

this is the exchange of ideas, technology, diseases, crops, and institutions that took place between the colonies and the colonizers during the era of colonization in the Atlantic

Question 43

miscegenation

Answer 43

intermarriage between whites and nonwhites; this occurred in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, and the result was the growth of the mestizo and mulatto populations

Question 44

creoles

Answer 44

people of European descent born in the New World, they dominated local Latin American economies and ranked just beneath the peninsulares